Sweet Potato Queens (2024)

Music by Melissa Manchester
Lyrics by Sharon Vaughn
Book by Rupert Holmes
Based on the bestselling books of
Jill Connor Browne
Original Orchestrations by John McDaniel

Feb. 29-Mar. 23, 2024
Marcelle Theatre
Show Webpage
Production Photos

THE CAST
Jill Conner Browne – Talichia Noah
Floozie Tammy – Mara Bollini
Too Much Tammy – Ann Hier Brown
Flower Tammy – Victoria Pines
Mama – Bethany Barr
Daddy – Kent Coffel
George – Aarin Kamphoefner
Tyler – Jeffrey M. Wright

THE NEW LINE BAND
Conductor/Keyboard – Dr. Tim Amukele
Keyboard 2 – Nikki Ervin
Electric Bass – John Gerdes
Percussion – Clancy Newell
Electric Guitar – Adam Rugo
Reeds – Brandon Thompson

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Directors – Scott Miller, Tony L. Marr Jr.
Choreographer – Tony L. Marr Jr.
Music Director – Dr. Tim Amukele
Stage Manager – Emily Floyd
Technical Director – Matt Stuckel
Sound Designer – Ryan Day
Scenic Designer – Dr. Rob Lippert
Costume Designer – Zachary Phelps
Lighting Designer – Matt Stuckel
Props Master – Emily Floyd
Master Electrician – Stephanie Robinson
Scenic Crew – Corey Anderson, Richard Brown, Stephanie Robinson, Bill Stuckel
Volunteer Coordinator – Alison Helmer
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Jill Ritter Lindberg

REVIEWS

“It’s a heartfelt and occasionally bawdy affair. But you could still bring your mother. . . A local premiere of an emotionally detailed and authentically acted show based on the best-selling novels of Jill Conner Browne. . . On balance, I think I’d rather see a charmingly traditional show like this, done by a vehemently non-traditional group like New Line Theatre, instead of the other way around. Scott Miller’s ensemble always gets the serious psychological ephemera fully mapped out. . . A little genuine love and good cheer, from a typically acerbic company like this, goes a long way.” – Richard Green, TalkinBroadway

“Feel-good musicals have the power to lift us up even when the characters and situations are far from our own experience. Such is the case with Sweet Potato Queens from New Line Theatre. The often laugh-out-loud funny musical about self-acceptance and finding your place in the world is a fluffily tenderhearted, uplifting show that thoroughly entertains. . . Too often, stories of empowerment, particularly women’s empowerment, can come across as preachy, judgmental or unattainable. Fortunately, Sweet Potato Queens, directed by Scott Miller and Tony L Marr Jr. and based on the book series by Jill Conner Browne, takes a different, more relatable path that’s satisfying and light. The characters are realistically human and imperfect; their determination to thrive is uplifting and emotionally connected, reflecting the universal desire to be loved for being you. If you’re in need of a good time that’s guaranteed to perk up your spirits, you should make plans to join the SPQ parade.” – Tina Farmer, The Riverfront Times

“New Line Theatre’s new production sparkles with warmth, humor and an easy-going approach to the accessible score, a winning combination for the troupe’s appreciative audiences. . . There’s a sweetness at the core of Sweet Potato Queens as Talichia Noah tells Jill Connor Browne’s rags-to-riches story in most agreeable fashion. Come on down and set a spell with these good-natured folks. You’ll be glad you did.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News

“A sweet-and-salty nutty mixed bag of brash gal pals and scummy exes who didn’t deserve them, Sweet Potato Queens sets a table for women to be proud and live out loud, no matter their lot in life. . . While the uninitiated may think the spotlighted women fall into Southern stereotypes, it is wise not to go there, for do not underestimate their wit, smarts, and resilience. These are not tsk-tsk yokels from another branch of the family tree or plucked fresh from the cabbage patch to be laughed at – you will laugh with them because they find out who they are and are OK with that.” – Lynn Venhaus, PopLifeSTL

“Sweet Potato Queens seems at once like an ideal show for New Line Theatre as well as being a bit of a surprise. . . Overall, Sweet Potato Queens at New Line is an entertaining, energetic, in-your-face ode to female empowerment. . . at New Line, the enthusiastic performers put their all into this tale full of over-the-top, occasionally raunchy Southern humor with a few well-placed moments of poignancy along the way. It’s an enjoyable evening with a memorable cast.” – Michelle Kenyon, Snoop’s Theatre Thoughts

DIRECTOR'S NOTES

One of New Line’s loyal subscribers, Debra Lueckerath, saw this musical in Metairie, Louisiana, and she brought me the show’s program, adamantly urging me to check it out. She was convinced this was a perfect show for us. I looked at the program cover, saw the show’s title, and I confess I thought to myself, “Ugh. Chick show.”

For a while, the program just sat on my desk, glaring at me, but at some point I picked it up, looked through it, then googled “Sweet Potato Queens,” and holy shit! I found the official SPQ website and discovered the amazingly funny and wise Jill Conner Browne.

So I got the show’s script to read and the piano score to play through, and I fell in love with it all. It charmed me and made me laugh out loud, and yet it also has some very serious, human stuff running underneath the carnival. It’s real life, all of it, funny, sad, ridiculous.

These women have taken every traditional, cliched, superficial, social expectation and exploded it. Men can’t help but obsess over tits and ass? Fine, the Queens give them tits and ass so gigantic they’re frightening. Men think long hair equals femininity? Fine, the Queens will give them a ton of hair. Men forever sexualize women? Fine, the Queens will give them a sexuality so aggressive, it will make them run away crying.

It’s empowering because these women are choosing to be the object of our gaze; it’s an active role, not a passive one. And because it’s so aggressive, it both (sort of) gives men what they want but it also terrorizes (and mocks) them with the same. And Lordy, it is funny.

But it’s so much more than that.

These women have claimed all the oppressive feminine stereo-types in our culture as their own. All of them. They expose these stereotypes as silly, ridiculous, grotesque. And at the same time, this satiric exaggeration of the female body also subtly forces men (and women) to accept normal female bodies as curvy, and women themselves as sexual. But they also don’t let us forget that those social forces are oppressive.

The outrageousness, the aggressiveness, the explicitness, the brilliant audaciousness of it all (dare I call it a mythology?), slyly disguises the serious underbelly of the SPQs – a simple demand for respect and self-determination. All the craziness is the Spoonful of Sugar that Helps the Medicine Go Down. But the Queens’ wacky escapades aren’t an escape from the real world; they are armor against it.

Sweet Potato Queens is an open invitation to all of us to stop taking the bullshit, to learn to Live Out Loud, and to each find our own particular path. Jill always reminds us to Be Particular!

We need that lesson right now as much as ever.